As a child we went to the Isle of Man every year to visit my grandmother who ran a boarding house in Douglas in Derby Square, the back of which overlooked the Villa Marina.

In 1964 my elder sister Jannifer and I entered Ivy Benson's daily singing competition and after a harmonious rendition of 'It Takes a Worried Man' my sister and I were voted the winners by the loudness of the applause!

We won £5 handed to us by Ivy herself. I had £2, my sister had £2 and we gave £1 to our youngest sister who was in the audience along with our parents and clapped the loudest!

Apart from that lasting memory there were, of course,daily trips through the Villa Marina to the strains of that wonderful band music and weather permitting lounging in the deck chairs eating Felices ice cream!

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